Wednesday, 14 May 2014

Russia retaliate: Cease operations of US GPS sites, abandon International Space Station after 2020

In retaliation against the US for sanctioning its businessmen and politicians during Russia-Ukraine crisis last month, Russia said it will halt all United States Global Positioning System (GPS) sites on the nation's territory, Russia Deputy PM, Dmitry Rogozin said Tuesday.

Rogozin added that Russia is in talks with the US to enter an agreement to allow it GLONASS stations on US territory but, if nothing good come out of it after three months, it will permanently terminate all of America's 11 GPS stations within the country.

Rogozin said among other things, that Russia would not go along with the US offer to continue to keep its International Space Station, ISS, in orbit after 2020, despite the fact that US was hoping to use the ISS until 2024.

Also, Russsia would no longer sell its NK-33 AND rd-180  rocket engines to the US, which the US depend on to launch military and civilian satellites into space. The US space agency, NASA, admitted that it can't build its own fully operational rocket engine before the due date.